How John Deacon met Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor

Queen was formed in 1970 in London, England by Brian May, Roger Taylor and Freddie Mercury. But it was in 1971 that their classic line-up was completed when the bassist John Deacon passed the audition and joined them.

He was a crucial part of the band not only for his bass playing, but also for his songwriting. He was the one who wrote hits like “Another One Bites the Dust” and “I Want To Break Free”, for example.

Deacon was always the most quiet member of the band and rarely talked to the press over the decades. But in an interview with Music Star back in 1974 he recalled how he met his bandmates.

John Deacon said about how he met Queen band members:

“Personally, one of the most important times for me was when I left home to go to college in London. It wasn’t so much the event itself. But it steered me in the musical direction. I met the other lads and got more professional, having played at home in little amateur groups.”

“First of all I met Roger and Brian in a disco. I’d heard they were looking for a bass guitarist so I chatted to them — they’d actually been auditioning for a few weeks before. But couldn’t find anybody who seemed to fit. Freddie was already on the scene by then, so my joining was the final forming of Queen as we are now. I had a little audition and they took me on. Quite easy really!”

“It was quite a moment when we decided to turn professional. We’d been playing in our spare time. But really I didn’t think, myself, that we’d ever do it even though we’d jokingly talked about it. Then we were lucky enough to be able to make a demo tape at a proper studio. When we took it round the record companies they were interested enough to give us confidence, so we gave it a go.”

He continued, saying:

“Possibly Freddie and Roger were the keenest. Brian was a big career man deeply into studying physics and astronomy and had reservations about it. But the other two are the born stars. Freddie’s probably the one who’s given us the most push to get on, and is the most insistent with people like managers and so on,” John Deacon said.

Deacon retired from the music business and public life in the late 90s. Since then he hasn’t recorded music or played live. However, according to Brian May and Roger Taylor he still is part of Queen’s business decisions.